


Spider Games

by Sholio



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Original Character - Freeform, Presumed Dead, Torture, Youkai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2001-09-30
Updated: 2001-09-30
Packaged: 2017-10-07 06:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone knew the Air Rip would destroy Miroku one day. They just didn't expect it to be this soon ... or that "death" would actually just be the <i>start</i> of his problems. (This was written very early in the manga's run and based on fan translations, so there may be significant discrepancies from later canon.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spider Games

It all happened so suddenly. That was what the four of them would remember afterward, on long sleepless nights: _There was no warning at all._

For the last day and a half they had been tracking a Youkai, a spider demon — though this one was a hunting spider, not a web-spinner like the one they'd fought in the mountains. It had been preying on local villages, carrying off children. The villagers had hired Sango and Miroku to exterminate it, but it had run off, and now the group of travelers pressed ever deeper into the wilderness, following the thing's trail.

"You really didn't have to come along," Sango said over her shoulder to Inu-Yasha and Kagome. The group had stopped to eat lunch on an outcropping of rocks. They were high in the hills now, in a barren land of open rocky places and wind-stunted trees. "You could have stayed in the village and taken a rest."

Inu-Yasha snorted. "Bah. The chances of finding more Shikon shards are better out here than sitting around some damn village, waiting for you two to get tired of Youkai-hunting."

"That's not it at all," Kagome said, tucking her legs up under her. "We couldn't let you go off into danger alone. What if something happens?"

Sango smiled. "I appreciate the thought, but I don't expect this one will give us too much trouble. Just look at how it's running away. It's afraid of us, isn't that right, Houshi-sama?"

"Hm?" Miroku glanced over at her. "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening." His eyes kept going to their surroundings — the cliff looming above them, the wind-gnarled trees.

"What's wrong?" Sango said.

"Something's wrong with this place. Don't any of you feel it?"

"I've been feeling a little creepy," Kagome said. "I thought it was just my imagination."

"Hmph." Inu-Yasha folded his arms. "I don't smell a thing. You humans are being paranoid as usual."

"Well, I don't like this place either," Shippou said loyally, jumping onto Kagome's shoulder and glaring at Inu-Yasha.

"What do you know, brat?"

"Shut up, you big bully!"

Inu-Yasha half-rose, fingering his sword and glaring at the little fox-demon. Kagome glared at him, her lips forming the word "sit", and Inu-Yasha subsided with poor grace.

"The locals do say that the mountain used to be haunted," Miroku said. "There was supposed to be a demon of some kind that killed unwary travelers."

"Think there's any truth to that?" Sango asked. Inu-Yasha gave them both a disgusted glare.

"It's possible. Even if it's true, though, we shouldn't have anything to worry about. The demon was only supposed to hunt during the winter, and it's the middle of summer now. Besides, it supposedly disappeared many years ago."

Sango rose and shouldered her boomerang. "Well, let's get moving. The trail is very fresh here. It's getting tired and clumsy. We should be finished before the day is out!"

"Unless it's some kind of trap," Inu-Yasha grumbled.

"You're the one who said you didn't smell anything!"

"I can't smell motivations. Who knows what this guy has in mind for us."

"Stop it, Inu-Yasha," Miroku said, looking at Kagome, who had wrapped her arms nervously around herself. Shippou worriedly petted her hair. "You're scaring Kagome-sama."

"_Me?_ You're the one who keeps talking about strange feelings and vanishing demons and that sort of garbage, priest. I'm just mentioning a perfectly likely scenario, that's all."

"I'm not afraid. Please don't fight with each other," Kagome said.

Sango looked back over her shoulder. "Well, stay close to Inu-Yasha, Kagome-chan. Just in case."

They followed the trail again, Kagome wheeling her bike along, since this country was too rough for her to ride through. Sango was right — the Youkai's tracks were fresh, and so plain that even Kagome could see the scuff marks in the sandy, barren soil.

"It's like it wants us to follow," Sango said quietly. "Inu-Yasha may be right. Stay sharp, everyone."

They came around a corner, and the wind changed, blowing full in their faces. Inu-Yasha stiffened, and his ears flattened.

"What is it?" Kagome asked, getting a bit behind him, just in case.

"Spider Youkai! Not just one, though." Inu-Yasha placed his hand on the Tetsusaiga's hilt. "Hundreds of them."

Sango looked around in alarm. "Hundreds?"

Kagome let out a little shriek.

Spider demons had begun to pour over the rocks around them. By the tens, by the scores, by the hundreds. They ranged in size from tiny garden-spiders to some nearly as big as the humans.

"It's a whole nest!" Sango yelled, throwing her boomerang. It swept a path through the onrushing spiders, crushing some, but the rest surged in to fill the gap. "That's why it led us up here! There may be thousands!"

Inu-Yasha seized Kagome under the arms and set her on top of the nearest boulder. "Stay there," he snapped, drawing the Tetsusaiga.

"Not again!" Kagome wailed. She looked around for a weapon and broke a branch from an overhanging pine tree, using it to crush spiders as they tried to climb onto her boulder. "I'm really — really — really starting to hate spiders!"

Inu-Yasha swept the Tetsusaiga around him, but for every spider he cut in half, three more rushed forward. Some of the smaller ones actually managed to cling onto the Tetsusaiga, and he had to smash them off against the rocks.

"Inu-Yasha!" Kagome shouted, kicking a cat-sized spider off the boulder. Shippou jumped on top of another, growling. "Use the Cutting Wind and blow them away!"

"I can't!" he yelled back. "I can't smell it — there's too many of them — the lines of force go every which way and there's no single place I can strike!"

Miroku was backed up against a tree, swatting spiders with his staff. "Ugh," he mumbled, raising it to briefly inspect the crushed spider parts embedded in the delicate carvings. Then he looked towards the others. Inu-Yasha and Sango were practically buried under spiders, and more kept coming. The rocks were alive with them. They were everywhere.

"We'll never get rid of the bastards using our weapons," he muttered, and raising his voice, shouted to his friends, "Hey! Everybody! Get away from the spiders!"

"Whaddya talkin' about?" Inu-Yasha snarled, sweeping the Tetsusaiga through the massed spiders. "Don't you think that's what we're _trying_ to do, idiot?"

"Move! Without any Saimyoushou around, I can use the Air Rip on them — but not unless you all take cover, okay?" He flattened more spiders with his staff. "Move! Before there are so many that you can't get away!"

"He's making sense." Sango pointed to a stand of trees higher on the hill. "We can get behind those!"

Inu-Yasha seized Kagome around the waist and cleared the boulder in one great leap, scattering spiders. "Hey!" she cried. "What about my bi—"

"Forget your vehicle! Isn't your life more important?"

"My parents are gonna kill me," Kagome moaned.

Miroku watched them flee. The spiders, as he'd hoped, were startled by the sudden retreat and it took a moment for them to regroup. _But we only have seconds before they start closing in again ..._ He whipped the seal loose from his hand and raised it, bracing himself against the tree.

Higher up the hill, Inu-Yasha gripped Kagome tightly and held onto a tree with the other hand. Sango had herself wedged between two pines, holding Shippou by the tail and brushing spiders off his fur.

"Look! It's working!" Kagome cried.

The spiders had no defenses against the powerful suction of the Air Rip. Some of them tried to cling to the rocks, but the rocks themselves were drawn into Miroku's hand.

And then it happened. Without warning. Between one moment and the next. Miroku was standing at the base of the tree, sucking up spiders — and then his whole body seemed to invert and fold in on itself. He let out one strangled cry before his body was swallowed by his own hand. There was a sudden thunderclap as the air rushed in to fill the space where he had been, popping the eardrums of the stunned onlookers. Then the wind died, and the few remaining spiders fell out of the air with a series of little plops.

Shippou was the first to speak. "M - Miroku?" He was still dangling by the tail from Sango's hand, swinging like a plumb bob. Both of them were too stunned to notice.

Inu-Yasha slowly let down Kagome, who stumbled when he let go of her and collapsed against a tree, as if it was all that held her up. Inu-Yasha absently skewered a few remaining disheartened spiders, but his heart wasn't in it.

"Miroku," Sango whispered. _"Miroku!"_ Her paralysis broke; she dropped Shippou and went down the mountainside in great leaps, towards the spot where he had stood. The others followed, dazed with shock.

"Is — is that how it happens? When the Air Rip —" Kagome couldn't finish. It was one thing to know that Miroku would eventually be absorbed into the black hole, but quite another to see it happen.

"Miroku..." Sango fell to her knees at the base of the tree. Where Miroku had stood, there was a very small crater, and his staff still lying on the ground where he had dropped it. Sango picked up the staff, cradled it in her arms, and began to cry.

"Sango-chan..." Kagome put her hand on Sango's shoulder, then put her arms around her. The two males watched helplessly, and after a moment Shippou jumped up onto Inu-Yasha's shoulder. Normally Inu-Yasha would have pushed him off, or muttered something about freeloaders, but this time he said nothing. Shippou buried his face in Inu-Yasha's white mane, shivering.

"Cut it out, kid," Inu-Yasha said. "Be a man."

Shippou raised his head, wiping his eyes. "Should — should we kill the rest of the spiders, Inu-Yasha?"

Inu-Yasha looked around. The surviving spiders, totally demoralized, had disappeared into the rocks. He thought about hunting them across the hillside, smashing them one by one. It seemed more like slaughter than he cared to contemplate.

"No. I doubt if they'll bother humans after this. Let them live their lives in peace up here. And don't tell anybody I said that."

 

* * *

 

Evening found them far down the mountain, making camp in the forest. The village was still a half-day's travel away. They made camp in slow, mechanical fashion, each of them carrying out his or her assigned task without thinking or speaking. They made dinner, but none of them except Shippou ate anything.

"Maybe —" Sango began, breaking the silence. Everyone else looked at her. "Maybe there's some way... I mean, maybe a spell or something... To bring him back, I mean..." She trailed off.

"If there was a way, don't you think Miroku would have found it?" Inu-Yasha said. "He'd already lost his old man that way. And his grandfather. You'd think he would have brought them back if he could."

"I - I know. I was — I was just..." Sango buried her face in her hands.

Kagome glared at Inu-Yasha and went to comfort her friend.

"Just stating a fact," Inu-Yasha muttered and tucked his hands into his sleeves, staring up at the sky. "Women. I swear."

"Don't you care?" Kagome raised her head, her face streaked with tears. "Miroku was your friend too, wasn't he? Don't you care he's gone?"

Inu-Yasha looked back at her. "We all knew that idiot didn't have many years left. He told us, right up front, when we met him. It just happened sooner than anybody thought." He toyed with the hilt of the Tetsusaiga. "Figures, doesn't it. That bastard couldn't even stick around long enough to help us with Naraku. Figures he'd die just when we needed him—"

"Inu-Yasha, SIT!"

"Ow! Hey, I wasn't doing anything, dammit!"

"You were being an insensitive jerk." Kagome dragged her hand across her eyes. "But that's what you are, isn't it — an immature jerk!"

"_Hey!_ I'm a Youkai, bitch — whaddya fuckin' expect?"

"That's a lousy excuse!" Her voice shook with anger. "I know you could be a better person if you tried! Miroku saw it too — don't you remember? When he started traveling with us, he told me that he could tell you were a good person deep down. And now you won't even cry for him! That makes you a jerk — you jerk!"

Inu-Yasha turned his back on her. "Youkai don't fuckin' cry, woman. I didn't cry when my parents died and you're outa your mind if you think I'm going to cry for that damn annoying light-fingered priest. He made his choice and now he's dead and that's just how it goes."

"He died saving our lives!"

"So he's a moron, too."

"Oooh! Inu-Yasha! Sit! Sit! Sit!"

"Bitch," Inu-Yasha mumbled through a mouthful of dirt.

 

* * *

 

Later, after Kagome had calmed down — but not apologized — they settled down to sleep, Kagome with Shippou in her arms as usual, and Sango across the fire from her, wrapped in a blanket.

Inu-Yasha sat awake, crosslegged, with his back against a tree and the sword laying across his lap. He let his sharp canine senses sift through the wind. Habit... by now, he probably wouldn't be able to get a good night's sleep without something to protect.

His thoughts kept circling to Kagome, like scavengers returning to a kill. Stupid woman. Where'd she get off talking to him like that? What did she know about him?

Miroku, indeed.

Idiot priest. He'd been dying from the moment they met him. They all knew it. Miroku himself knew it. So he'd finally gone ahead and died — it didn't exactly come as a shock. Besides, he was only a human, and humans died every day. No need to worry about it.

Inu-Yasha raised a hand to his face and felt moisture there. For a moment he thought it must be rain or dew — but the night wasn't cold, and the sky above was clear.

_Tears...?_

Tears... for a human.

He couldn't remember the last time he had cried. As he'd told Kagome, he hadn't even cried at his parents' deaths, though he had felt their loss keenly._ Youkai NEVER cry._ He had been taught that so thoroughly that he hadn't even really grieved when Kikyou had betrayed him — though his heart had screamed in pain, he'd swallowed the hurt beneath anger.

But there was no anger here to take refuge behind.

_So this is what it's like... to mourn..._

"Inu-Yasha?"

He hadn't noticed Kagome's approach, and that really startled him — even frightened him a little bit. Losing himself in reverie, to the exclusion of the world around him? He was Youkai! A hunter, a predator!

_It is only the weakness of my human half, that makes me forget my surroundings in favor of tears. I'll be glad to shed this weak half. Someday I will be strong..._

But he wasn't even sure he believed that anymore. Every time he thought of purging his body of his human half, the image that came into his head was of a village filled with corpses — human bodies, torn apart by his claws, the smell of human blood so powerful it made him dizzy. And those village children, shrinking from him in fear...

_Don't go near him. That's a monster..._

Perhaps sensing Inu-Yasha's dark thoughts, Kagome sat down quietly next to him. Inu-Yasha turned his face away from her, letting the shadows hide the marks of tears on his cheeks.

"I couldn't sleep," Kagome said softly. "I heard Sango crying... she cried herself to sleep, but at least she's asleep now. And Shippou pressed so close to me tonight that it was like he wanted to get under my skin, until he finally fell asleep, sucking on his thumb like a much younger kid than he really is. But I ... I couldn't sleep at all."

She was quiet for a moment, then leaned her head against Inu-Yasha's shoulder. "Do you mind if I ... stay like this for a while?"

Her little body was very warm, very soft against his arm. _You can stay like that as long as you want. I don't ever want you to go away, not ever._ But he only said, "Suit yourself."

Kagome rested her face against his mane. Her warm girl-smell filled his senses, and Inu-Yasha thought it might not hurt to raise his arm, just a little, so she didn't have to lean against the rough bark of the tree...

"Oh, Inu-Yasha," Kagome whispered. "I'm sorry I said those horrible things to you."

_No, don't apologize, Kagome. You had every right to say them. _"Don't worry about it," Inu-Yasha muttered.

"I just miss Miroku."

"Yeah," Inu-Yasha murmured, dizzy with the smell of her hair. "Yeah. So do I."

 

* * *

 

There's a darkness beyond darkness, where dark no longer has meaning, and might as well be red or green or purple. It's the darkness of total unconsciousness, the darkness of total fear or pure hatred. A darkness that can be breathed like air, drunk like water.

Miroku swam up out of that darkness, and for a long time he stayed still, very still, panting like a dog through his open mouth. The darkness behind his eyelids was red-tinted and nothing like what he'd just experienced. He could hear the sound of water trickling, somewhere nearby.

_What... happened to me...?_

"You look so much like him." A woman's voice, soft, husky, wondering.

Miroku opened his eyes. His vision was blurred, but slowly it resolved a face white as eggshell, eyes deep and black as night, painted lips and long black hair. The woman wore a flowered kimono, its pattern as graceful and beautiful as the delicate curves of her hands folded in front of her. There were wildflowers in her hair.

_Well, maybe this situation isn't all bad...._

Miroku tried to bow, and found that he couldn't move. At first he thought he might be paralyzed; then he felt the tugging of bonds around his wrists, chest, waist. He was tied upright, against something that felt like stone. His head, too, was secured by a band across the forehead. He heard the clink of the beads sealing his Air Rip, so that was safe, at least.

"Oh, good, you are awake." A faint smile touched the woman's lips, but there was no warmth in it, no warmth anywhere about her. "Now we can talk. Would you like to talk?"

"My pardon, lovely lady." Miroku gave her what he hoped was an open, friendly smile. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure of making your acquaintance."

"Perhaps not." Again that cold, secret smile. "I thought I had made yours... but now I see that I was mistaken. Still, you must be related to him somehow... his son, maybe? Grandson? Has it been that long? Humans have such short lives."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Miroku said, some of his polite manner starting to slip away as he began to realize just how much trouble he was in.

"No, perhaps not." She reached her hand out of his field of vision, and he felt her touch the wrist of the hand with the Air Rip, stroke the sealing rosary with a soft jangle. "Yet you have this, and so did he."

"You must have met my father, or my grandfather."

"That's probably what it was. Grandfather. It has been quite a long time, by human standards." She smiled more fully, and the tip of her little red tongue appeared, running over her lips. Under other circumstances, Miroku would have found that little gesture powerfully erotic, but he was starting to get the impression that this woman was not his type — in a MAJOR way.

"My honored grandfather had a bit of a reputation for..." Miroku hesitated.

"Lechery?" the pale woman inquired. "Cheating? Sleeping around? Any of these words will do."

_Uh-oh._ "I take it you... made his acquaintance."

"He killed my husband," the woman said, running her hand lightly across Miroku's neck.

"Oh ... you don't say?" _I am NOT getting turned on by this. I am much too frightened. Yeah, right..._

"Because I asked him to." Her hand slipped lower, under the neck of his robe.

"Oh." _Ignore her hand. Think about... meditating. Yes, that's it. Ommmmm...._

"Would you like to hear the story, houshi?"

"Uh.. if you need to get it off your chest, then sure." Chest... that's where her hand was at the moment.

Her fingers tightened suddenly, convulsively, and Miroku gasped at the sharp, lancing pain, all erotic thoughts fleeing his head. The woman brought her hand out of his robe with blood dripping off her fingernails — no, they weren't fingernails precisely, but more like claws. _Oh, this is a fine time to notice a thing like that, Mr. Observant. _He was still gasping from the pain.

The woman licked her fingers and smiled at him. Miroku found that he was about as far from being horny as he'd ever been in his life.

"Let's see, where to begin? Your grandfather was a Youkai hunter, yes? But when he came to my mountain he was not hunting Youkai. It was winter and he had lost his way in the snow. So we took him in and sheltered him, my husband and I."

She licked her fingers again, and plunged her hand back down his robe. Miroku could feel her claws tracing around the wound on his chest that she had made earlier. He shivered. There was nothing erotic about any of this anymore.

"Naturally we were curious about his hand. We asked many questions, but he never answered us. He stayed with us while he became stronger, and he and I ... well, you can imagine how lonely a woman gets, living in the mountains all winter long. My husband was a bit... distant at times. Your grandfather was not distant at all."

_From what I've heard of dear old Granddad, that's the understatement of the year._ "Go on," Miroku said as calmly as he could.

"It's amazing what a woman can learn about a man on long winter nights. Including the strange matter of his hand. That story, and many others, he told to me as we lay by the fire. Then, one day, my husband came in and found us like that."

She plunged her fingernails into Miroku's flesh again, and he stifled a cry of pain.

"He was quite upset, and threatened us both. He said he would kill us, and knowing my husband, I knew he did not lie. I told your grandfather to use the power of his hand if he valued his life. So he killed my husband with it."

Her fingers tightened, the nails raking through flesh and muscle. Miroku gritted his teeth, determined not to cry out.

"Then he sealed his hand and turned towards me, and the words he spoke froze my heart to ice. 'You planned this from the beginning, didn't you?' he said. 'You think I don't know what you are, woman? I have heard stories about these mountains. You have killed many unwary travelers, first taking them into your bed, then killing them when they bored you. But now and then you find one you like and take him to be your husband, until you grow weary of him, and then you find another pawn and twist him around your finger, trick him into killing your former husband, and make him your new one.'

" 'I am not going to kill you,' he said. 'I have never killed a woman and I never will, though I deeply resent being made a pawn in your game. But you will never again harm any traveler to these mountains. For I will seal you in this cave.'"

_ So that's why the demon of this mountain has been quiet in recent years..._

__ Her hand gripped convulsively at Miroku's chest and now he did cry out involuntarily.

"He left me here all alone! But I am not helpless! In the long years since, I have worked on unlocking the secrets of the Air Rip in his hand, and laid traps so that if he ever came back this way, he would fall into my snare and be brought to me. He tore my heart out that day! So I will tear out yours!"

"But I'm not the one who hurt you," Miroku gasped. "I had nothing to do with it."

"I don't care! There is only one way you'll get out of here alive, houshi, and that's if you break the seal holding me in this cave. Otherwise, you will die in great pain."

"But my grandfather set the seal; I don't think I can —"

"Then die!" Her fingers dug in, and he cried out again, cold sweat of pain and fear standing out all over his body.

"Owww! Look, I'll try, okay? I'll try! But first you have to set me free! I can't do anything with my hands tied up."

"Do you think I'm foolish? The first thing you'll do is escape, just as your grandfather did. Or use your Air Rip on me."

"You can keep that hand tied up, if you'd like," Miroku said.

The cold smile curved her lips. He was starting to hate that smile. "No, I'll do something even better."

She gripped his right arm in both hands — one hand dripping with his blood, the other white and pristine — and twisted sharply. The sick pop of breaking bone echoed through the cave, and Miroku screamed. But she didn't stop there — she kept twisting, and he screamed again, feeling the bones grind. Warm wetness soaked his sleeve and dripped onto the cave floor.

"There," she said quietly. "Now you cannot use your Air Rip on me."

Miroku gasped for air. He would have fallen to the floor if his bonds hadn't been holding him up. "You... stupid bitch," he gasped. "Don't you know my magic takes concentration? You'll be lucky if I can manage any sort of spell now."

"Good. That way you won't be able to escape, and maybe you can tell me how to undo the seal myself. If not, I'll just keep you here until you are well enough to break the seal yourself."

She undid his bonds and Miroku fell to his knees, trembling with shock.

_Keep it together, priest. If you pass out, she might just kill you out of spite._

He gritted his teeth and managed to get to his feet. His right arm dangled uselessly at his side. She was right; he wasn't going to be using the Air Rip for some time.

"Show me the seal."

She led him around the cave, showing him the focus points. He could see immediately that it was nicely done, but not very complex. It would be easy for someone of his level of expertise to undo, even with the injury. She must be quite weak in binding and sealing magic — not surprising, if she was a Youkai.

But now what? He had no confidence that she would keep her promise to let him go. She'd probably kill him as soon as he undid the seal. And even if she didn't , he would still have unleashed her evil on the world once again. It was far better to keep her in this cave.

_However, I have no intention of dying. Not yet._

"Well, houshi? What have you found out?"

"It's a very complex seal," Miroku said. "My grandfather was a binder of no small ability. I will need some time to unravel it."

"But you can?"

"I believe so. It will be harder without the use of my right arm, of course. If I could have some warm water and bandages, I can set the break so that I can concentrate bet—"

Her hand caught him across the face and sent him flying into the rock. He landed on his broken arm and a white sheet of pain passed in front of his eyes.

"Do not toy with me and do not lie to me, houshi." She gripped him by the front of his robe, lifting him like a child's doll, and then smashed him against the floor again. Miroku panted for air — it felt like she'd cracked some ribs that time. She was so strong!

"Look," he gasped, propping himself up on his good arm. "You'll be doing yourself no good if you kill me from misuse. At least give me something for pain, or I'll be no good to you at all."

"I suppose I could do that," she said grudgingly, and snapped her fingers. A spider dropped from the ceiling onto her outstretched hand. She whispered to it, and it dropped to the floor and scuttled off.

Miroku stared after it. "That — that was —"

"They are my children," the woman said quietly, and as he stared, more spiders of all sizes dropped from the ceiling, into her hair and onto her shoulders. "You and your friends killed many of them, but that's all right... I have more children than I can count."

"So you're a spider Youkai." Miroku got painfully to his feet. "And you, through your children, are behind the killings at the villages. The evil of this mountain didn't really leave — it just went underground, so to speak."

The spider woman gave him a cool look. "I didn't bring you here to talk. Just work on that seal."

Miroku sighed and found a relatively comfortable place to sit and pretend to study the seal.

His mind was racing. How could he get out of this? For that matter, how had his grandfather left this place? The seal didn't affect him, of course, but he couldn't just step through the wall. Somewhere, there must be some sort of door or passageway. The spiders seemed to come and go freely, although he had yet to see any of the big ones in here, so perhaps the only entrances and exits were small.

Miroku leaned his forehead against the wall and allowed himself briefly to lapse into worry about his friends. He hoped that they hadn't been harmed in the Air Rip implosion that brought him here, or killed by the spiders. Still, he knew he couldn't waste time in worrying about them. They would have to get by on their own; he needed all his wits if he was going to get out of here.

"Human," the woman said, kneeling beside him. She held out a bowl with some kind of strong-smelling liquid in it. "This will help with the pain, and give you energy."

"Gee, thanks." Miroku drank the potion. It tasted terrible, but he supposed that she had no reason to try to poison him. If she wanted to kill him, all she'd have to do was kill him. He hated that helpless feeling!

"My name is Miroku," he said, handing the bowl back to her with a smile.

No warmth flickered in her eyes. "I don't care what your name is. You have only one purpose to me, and the only reason I offer you any comforts at all is so that you can fulfill that purpose."

"Well, just as long as we've got that straight, then," Miroku muttered, turning back to the wall.

He could feel the medicine take effect; his body felt warm and tingly, the agony in his arm retreating to a small, hard knot of pain, and his head buzzed pleasantly. Some kind of stimulant as well as painkiller, he supposed. It probably wouldn't do him any good when it wore off, but that wouldn't matter if he was still here when it wore off, because in all likelihood he would be dead.

_If I was dead, then the medicine couldn't wear off, could it?_ He almost giggled at that thought, and shook his head to clear it. _Oh, great, now I'm half-drunk on whatever she gave me, too. This is gonna help a whole lot._

"Are you having any luck?" the Spider Woman asked.

"It's tricky. I think I'm making some progress on this one, though. I need to concentrate."

She retreated to the other side of the room. Miroku sighed and stared at the wall.

_Come on! Think!_

He looked around the cave. It was totally empty except for a long workbench at the other end with bowls, pots, dried leaves and powders, next to a natural pool of dark water — the source of the running water he'd heard when he first woke up, as it flowed ever in, ever out. This corner was her magical workshop, no doubt. He wondered if she'd had the spiders bring her all the materials over the years, bit by bit, as the years went by in her prison and she never grew older.

He could almost feel sorry for her — probably would have felt sorry for her, if she wasn't a self-centered bitch who'd broken his arm and was planning on killing him.

A spider ran across his good hand and he shivered.

_How do they get and out, anyhow?_

He watched the spider scuttle across the wall and, to his amazement, jump into the the dark pool of water and sink with barely a ripple.

_A natural spider wouldn't do that, but I guess it doesn't matter since they're not natural spiders._

_ I don't suppose I could get in and out that way...?_

The water certainly had to come from somewhere, and it had to flow to somewhere. The rate of flow was so slow, however, that he suspected the opening couldn't be very big. Certainly not big enough for him.

_So how'd Granddad get out?_

Then, in the web of the seal, he found the answer. It was so simple that he felt like a fool for not seeing it earlier. The cave wasn't underground at all. It was actually open to the outdoors on one entire side. One of the walls was illusion, all part of the seal. It was a very good illusion; Miroku felt some resistance as he pushed his hand against it, and then his fingers slipped through without leaving a mark. He pulled his hand out, elated.

It was illusion to him, but it was totally real to Spider Woman. It must be at least partly real to the spiders, too, since he'd seen them crawl across it.

All he had to do was just walk out!

He stood up and a wave of dizziness swept across him. He stumbled, almost caught himself on the wall, which would have been disaster — then he would have been lying half in, half out of the wall, and Spider Woman might have caught him before he pulled himself all the way out. If she ever learned that he could go through the wall, he'd never get near it again. He probably wouldn't live long enough to get near it.

He looked at Spider Woman. She was watching him suspiciously, her face blurring in and out of his perception. _Man, I'm really not doing well, am I?_ He wondered how fast she could move. In his current state, anything could probably move faster than he could.

His escape depended totally on how much resistance the wall put up when he tried to shove his whole body through it, and how quickly she realized what was going on. All he had to do was get out of her reach before she could cross the room to grab him. But the timing would have to be perfect, since she was watching him every minute.

"What is it?" she asked him, and he realized that he was still standing, staring blankly at her.

Miroku shook his head. "Nothing. I — could use a little help, though."

She rose, watching him warily. "What do you mean?"

"It's going to take more than one person to undo the seal. That's why you couldn't do it before. It only took one to create it, but it takes two to remove it."

"What should I do?" she asked eagerly.

He pointed to the wall opposite him. "You need a person at either end of the seal. You'll need to be there. I warn you, it could take some time."

She laughed softly. "All I have is time, human."

_But I don't._ The blood on his broken arm had dried, stiffening the sleeve of his robe so that it crackled when he moved. He was sure the ends of the bone had been thrust through the skin by her rough handling. He was going to pass out sooner or later, and he'd better not still be here when he did.

"Here?" she asked, standing beside the wall.

"Yes. Now we'll need one of us at the bottom of the seal, and one at the top. You're taller than me, so you should be the one at the top. You'll need to stretch to reach the ceiling."

She obeyed eagerly, reaching her hands over her head. "Like this?"

_Yes, just like that... sucker. _"Just like that," Miroku said.

"I feel nothing."

"You won't for a while. I'll start working on my end. You'll have to be ready. I'll warn you when we're getting close to the seal beginning to crack, and then you have to move quickly. Ready?"

"Ready," she agreed.

Miroku squatted down by the wall and placed his left hand against it, resting it lightly enough that there should be no problems with accidentally pushing through.

"Now be ready. Like I said, this may take a long time. Or it may be short... there's no way to know."

"All right."

Miroku looked down at his hand and hoped that it looked like he was concentrating, while he thought around and around his plan — such as it was — looking for a flaw.

Flaws weren't hard to find. It was full of flaws. Hopefully they wouldn't be fatal flaws.

His escape plan had no grace or elegance. It depended on human reflex, and the hope that Youkai muscles and reflexes worked just like human ones. At the moment, Spider Woman had her back to him, though she was still watching over her shoulder, and her hands were stretched to the ceiling.

A human being cannot maintain endless vigilance. Eventually they get tired, and attention starts to wander. At the same time, a human also can't stay in the same position without getting stiff and tired.

He was hoping to wait until she was no longer watching him, and then hope that it would take her long enough to get turned around that he'd be gone before she could chase him.

Miroku swayed, and his hand wavered in front of him. _Oh, no..._ He'd almost fallen into the wall again. It was taking all his concentration just to stay upright. The painkiller was wearing off, and the throbbing in his arm was now matched by a pounding in his head. He wouldn't be able to wait as long as he'd like to make his run for freedom, or he would pass out where he was — and probably fall into the wall.

He sneaked a glance over his shoulder at Spider Woman. She was still watching him, and when she caught his eye, smiled at him. She looked cool, unruffled, perfectly calm.

Miroku thought of Inu-Yasha sitting up all night, keeping watch, his eyes fixed on the horizon, never moving even when a leaf fell into his hair or a ladybug crawled across his foot. It was no use. A human could not possibly out-wait a Youkai, especially not an injured human. His own limbs would become slow and heavy long before hers would. His legs were already cramping from his crouching position. He'd meant to spring lithely forward, into the wall, but after sitting like this for a few hours, he'd likely just fall over.

But he was committed now. If nothing happened, she would want to know why — and he could see only two outcomes to that. Either he'd have to admit that he could open the seal, in which case she'd torture him until he did, or he'd do the brave thing, the heroic thing, the _stupid_ thing, and tell her he couldn't open the seal. In which case, if he was lucky, she'd just kill him quickly.

Now or never.

He looked away from her piercing black eyes. She was not going to look away from him, so he'd just have to hope he was fast enough.

He crouched a little lower, and jumped.

Her gasp of shock turned to a shriek of rage when she saw what was happening. Miroku barely heard her, barely managed to stay conscious, because he hadn't anticipated what would happen when his injured arm hit the almost-but-not-fully tangible wall. What felt like mild pressure on the rest of his body sent a shock of agony searing from his fingers to his shoulder.

_I have to keep moving or I'll die—_

Bone-hard fingers closed on his foot. Miroku cried out, a hoarse yell of pain, frustration, anger. He had been _so close!_ For a moment he glimpsed night sky, stars, rocks in the moonlight — But she was dragging him backwards. He scrabbled at the ground with his left hand, but weakened, he was helpless against her Youkai strength.

She slammed him into the floor. Miroku gasped.

"Stupid, stupid human!"

She kicked him in the side. Miroku felt another rib give way. Her next kick hit him in the face and knocked him halfway across the room. He tried to pick himself up, spitting blood.

"How dare you! Trying to doublecross me! Stupid, pathetic human! I'll kill you!"

He reeled. She was going in and out of focus, striding across the room towards him, her beautiful kimono stained with his blood. He wouldn't survive more than a few of those blows.

_I have no choice. I have to do this, or I'll die._

Gritting his teeth, he started to unwrap the rosary from the Air Rip.

"What are you doing?" She grabbed him by the wrist of his injured arm and yanked him upright. The broken bone twisted; Miroku screamed. "Stupid priest! You can't control it with your arm broken!"

"Maybe not," he gasped, "but at least I can kill you!"

He wrenched the rosary free. He expected the pain that slammed into him like an avalanche, but still he wavered, falling to the floor. He gripped his wrist with his other hand, trying to steady his arm and control the angle of the Air Rip so that he didn't suck himself in —

— and found Spider Woman still holding onto him.

She had been pulled most of the way in. From the way her arm was twisted, it must have started with her head and then pulled in the rest of her, which must have done horrible things to her neck and shoulders — it was amazing she was still alive, and her arm must be at least as bad off as his.

But she wouldn't let go.

"Get — off!" Miroku gritted, trying to pry at her ice-cold, ice-pale fingers. In the meantime he was sucking up everything in the room, even the water in the pool. At least the entire spider nest would be cleaned out — but it wouldn't matter to him, if he couldn't get her off his arm. He wondered what would happen if he just sealed the Air Rip with her half in and half out. He'd never tried anything like that. Would it sever her arm — or refuse to seal, and consume him as well?

"Let go, bitch!" He had to do something or he was going to pass out from the pain. The continued suction of the Air Rip was pulling pieces of the walls free. Rocks fell all around him, though most were sucked up before they hit him. If this kept up, he was going to bring the ceiling down on top of himself, and he was pretty sure he couldn't suck up _that._

But the question was being decided for him. The suction was turning out to be stronger than her flesh and sinew. Her hand was gradually, inexorably, drawn closer to the Air Rip. Miroku screamed again as her unbelievably powerful grip broke several of the smaller bones in his wrist.

_This is so totally not my fucking day..._

Then her hand was gone, and Miroku, shivering violently, managed to seal the Air Rip right before he passed out.

He woke eventually, and opened his eyes to total blackness. He started to scream, then realized that the cave must have been lit by Spider Woman's magic. Now that she was gone, her magic was gone as well.

Panic gripped him. What about the wall —?

He sat up, groaning, and fumbled around in the darkness until he touched rock and felt it give way beneath his hand.

_Oh thank you thank you thank you..._

He stumbled out onto a moonlit hillside, still and quiet beneath a sky like a velvet sea of stars. Miroku stood swaying in the cool breeze, and then he realized where he was. He would have laughed if it hadn't hurt too much.

_This is the spot where we had lunch._

He sank down on the ground, still fighting an irrational urge to giggle, and drew a few deep breaths until he had himself under control.

_The others are never going to believe this. _

He got to his feet, and started to stagger down the mountain.

 

* * *

 

Kagome stirred, coming blearily out of a bad dream... something about failing her math exams because all her math texts had been sucked into the Air Rip... There was a coldness against her shoulder. After a moment she realized that it was not coldness, but absence of the heat that had been there. Inu-Yasha had moved.

Kagome looked around and saw him nearby, standing still in the moonlight, his white mane shining like a cascade of silver water. He was so... so beautiful, standing like that, she realized. So beautiful it took her breath away.

"Inu-Yasha, what—"

"Shh!" He raised a hand. He was holding the Tetsusaiga, and she saw that his ears were pricked, his sensitive nose quivering as he sniffed the breeze.

Kagome came closer to him, feeling safer near him than out in the suddenly ominous night by herself. "Is it Naraku?" she whispered. "Spiders?"

"I don't know," he answered softly. "I can hear something... approaching our camp." He pointed. "Coming from there."

"From the mountain," Kagome murmured, shivering. She could hear the crashing now, too.

"Whatever it is, it's making no attempt to hide its noise."

"Can you smell it?"

He shook his head. "The wind's wrong. You stay here. I'm going to go check it out."

"No. I'll come with you."

Inu-Yasha gave her a glare of annoyance, but she glared back, and he sighed, relenting. "Just stay behind me, okay?"

Kagome shivered again as they entered the trees. "Not a problem," she murmured.

Suddenly Inu-Yasha froze; Kagome almost bumped into him. "What? What is it?"

"Stay back, Kagome."

She tried to peer around him, and suddenly saw what he was looking at. A shadowy figure, illuminated by a shaft of moonlight slanting down through the trees. Hair the color of pitch, disheveled and askew; a small ponytail with most of the hair pulled out of it; ragged robes fluttering in the breeze. He was leaning weakly against a tree. Abruptly he looked up at them, stiffened, and then laughed a small laugh. "Man, am I glad to see you two. You'll never believe what just happened to —"

"Quiet!" Inu-Yasha snapped, raising the Tetsusaiga. "We know who you are, Naraku!"

"Naraku?" The Miroku lookalike stared at them both in disbelief. His face was bruised and filthy, covered with blood.

"We all saw Miroku die. If you're going to take the shape of one of our friends, the least you could do is choose someone halfway plaus—" He broke off, and Kagome saw that he was sniffing the air. The wind had changed.

Inu-Yasha dropped the Tetsusaiga. It clattered on the ground.

Miroku tried to take a step away from the tree, reeled and almost fell. "Inu-Yasha, you stupid dog-brained excuse for a mother-fucking _bastard,_ get over here and give me a hand before I pass out!" He fell to his knees on the grass.

Kagome clutched at Inu-Yasha's arm. "Inu-Yasha, is it really —" But he pulled away from her and strode over to Miroku, who was slumped over, clutching his arm.

"We all thought you were dead, priest," Inu-Yasha said, bending over him.

Miroku gave him a strained grin. "Not too far from the truth. Ah, sorry about the bastard thing."

Inu-Yasha laughed. The sound brought Kagome up short — she couldn't ever remember hearing him laugh before, except sarcastically or to taunt somebody. This was a genuine sound, a happy sound.

"Get up, priest, and let's see what Kagome and Sango can do about that arm," Inu-Yasha said, helping Miroku to his feet with a surprisingly gentle hand under his good arm.

Kagome ran lightly across the clearing and wrapped her arms around Miroku. "Careful, you'll get blood all over you," he muttered, but he leaned against her wearily.

"Goodness, is all this your blood?"

"Afraid so. Uh, where's your camp?"

"Nearby." One on either side of him, they led him into the woods, back the way they had come. Miroku relaxed and let them lead him along. _This feels... so good..._ He'd been alone so much of his life. Such a simple thing, to have someone care about him, worry about him.

_I'm glad they weren't hurt. I would never have forgiven myself if harm had come to them._

He looked down at his right hand, dangling limply at his side. The rosary beads glittered in the moonlight.

_Someday, I will find a cure. I won't be a slave to this thing all my life._

_ I have people to live for, now._


End file.
